31 entries from August 2011

Mortadella is a favorite around here. Some people call this gloriously spiced salumi, generously larded with pistachios, peppercorns and fat a glorified baloney but we call it delicious. It also happens to be one of Amaya's favorite things, so it's little wonder that we look for ways to make it even more delicious. Here we've embrced the PA love for "chipped" cold cuts, sliced so thin that they stick together, and fried the chipped della on one side. This intensifies the flavor while providing a crisp texture paired with the light and fluffy chipped meat on top. We have tucked our butter fried della in a griddled hot dog bun and paired it with freshly pickled vegetables, a play off traditional Italian giardiniera and some lightly charred/roasted peppers. It was pretty darned delicious and a fried egg easily turns this into one of the best breakfast sandwiches you've never tasted. It's easy enough to try at home and once you do, you'll be wondering what took us so long...

The idea for curing the heart is inspired by our friend chef Chris Cosentino. He prepares a salt cured tuna heart which he shaves over pasta, and probably numerous other preparations. Since he had the tuna version wrapped up (which is absolutely delicious and we hope he will some day divulge the recipe in printed form) we took it to venison. Our cure blends salt and sugar, an array of aromatics and some fresh herbs. It is not that we are keeping the complete recipe close to the hip indefinetly but just for now. We will publish the full recipe in October. Besides, our cryptic approach allows for creative extrapolations. After the heart is cured we wrap it in cheesecloth and let it dry in the refrigerator. The heart is then firm enough to grate on a rasp, replicating the beautiful grated tuna heart we experienced at Incanto. The salt cured heart is rich and minerally. It brings a salinity to foods as well as a gaminess in a delicate manner. We are excited to see how we may use this new addition to our pantry.

I guess with fall around the corner and a quest for flavor on the mind it pushed us to explore what was possible. These lentils are soaked in coconut water for 24 hours. Once they are hydrated they cook in under thirty minutes on the stove. They become super plump with a brief pop followed by a tender interior. The process of hydrating the lentil is one we have done with beans (of course) and nuts (works brilliantly) and rice (6 minute risotto) so it is a wonder why it took so long to try with lentils.

We were trying to get lunch on the table and I wanted some roasted peppers to go into the cherry pepper salad Aki had put together. Since Amaya was hungry, really we were too, and I could not let the roasted pepper idea go, I whipped out the butane torch and blistered the skin of this Anaheim pepper. When the exterior was evenly blackened I set about peeling. What was exciting is the torching allowed me to use a paper towel to just wipe away the charred skin, similarly to how we would peel a roasted beet. The issue with the torching technique is the pepper was still raw. Not a bad place to be for many applications however I was looking for a more tender fleshed pepper, the texture of a roasted pepper. To quickly cook the pepper we microwaved it for thirty seconds. The end result was a "roasted" pepper which was easily peeled and filled my need for a roasted pepper in a pickled pepper salad.

We're working with venison and calamari to get ready for our workshop for the International Chef's Congress. Cervena was kind enough to donate some venison for us to test recipes with and we are having a great time playing with all of the possibilities. Here we have some beautiful shanks. When it comes to sous vide finding the right balance of time and temperature is everything and we are excited to see what particular combination works best for us.

These noodles are made with the machine and a new die we have been working with which looks like 3 tubes of bucatini fused together. The shape is one we have not seen before so we are shooting blind in both tradition and uses. This is a good place to be because we can write our own history. We can work with lengths, textures and flavors and find what works for a particular dish without being constrained by what has been, should be or what we think we know.

We slice the hot dogs into 1/4 inch slices. We then saute them in a bit of olive oil until they caramelize and become foxy brown. Once one side is cooked we flip them and repeat the cooking. The results are wonderful with a rich thick crust on the hot dog with a tender meaty interior. The plan (happily achieved) was to capture the essence of bacon lardons with a hot dog. The execution of these hot dog "lardons" opens the door for possibilities for hot dogs and the dishes we use them with; first up: Frisee au "Lardons."

We actually developed this dish a few years back as part of a book proposal that never came to fruition. We came across it again recently and were struck by how much we still love this dish. It's perfect for summer's sweet tomatoes and it seemed like the perfect time to share it here.

Tomato Soup with Mozzarella Noodles

Tomato Soup (below)

Mozzarella Noodles (below)

Baby Tomatoes (below)

40 Thai Basil Leaves

40 Thai Basil Blossoms

Place a pot of water on to boil. Pour soup in a separate large pot over medium heat and bring it to a simmer. Place the baby tomatoes and any juices which they released in a pan large enough to hold them in one layer. Gently warm through or low heat. When the water is boiling add the mozzarella noodles and cook for two minutes to heat through. Arrange five assorted tomatoes in the top right had corner of each dish. When the noodles are hot, drain them and arrange a nest of noodles slightly overlapping the warmed tomatoes. Place the basil leaves and the basil blossoms on the tomatoes and mozzarella noodles, dividing them so that they are spread evenly over these components. Pour the soup into the bowl and serve immediately.

Tomato Stock

800 grams canned San Marzano tomatoes

140 grams hoisin sauce

15 grams dried hibiscus flowers

500 grams water

Combine tomatoes, hoisin sauce, hibiscus, and water in a 6-quart pressure cooker. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Alternatively, combine all of the ingredients in heavy bottomed pot and bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Simmer gently, skimming as needed, for one hour. Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain the finished stock through a fine meshed strainer lined with damp cheesecloth into a heatproof bowl. Use immediately or chill in an ice bath and reserve in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Tomato Soup

1400 grams fresh tomatoes

1045 grams tomato stock

5 grams fine sea salt

xanthan gum (amount calculated by weight below)

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place in a vacuum bag. Seal them in a vacuum sealer on high pressure to compress the tomatoes and to concentrate their texture and flavor. In two new bags, divide the tomato stock and the vacuum compressed tomatoes. Vacuum seal the tomatoes with the stock and let marinate overnight. Open the bags and place the tomatoes and stock in a blender. Puree the tomatoes and their stock in a blender on a medium speed for 90 seconds. This will allow the tomatoes to be coarsely chopped and pulverized without blending the seeds and skin into the soup. Strain the coarse mixture through a fine mesh sieve, pressing on the solids to extract as much tomato liquid as possible.

Weigh the strained soup and calculate 0.1% of that weight. That is the amount of xanthan gum you will need to add to the base. Pour the soup into a clean blender and turn it on low, Slowly increase the speed to form a vortex at the base of the tomato mixture. With the blender still running, remove the lid and sprinkle in the salt and the xanthan gum. Once the xanthan gum is incorporated, turn off the blender. Strain the mixture one more time through a fine mesh strainer.

In order to remove excess air bubbles, put the soup in the container so that it comes only one third of the way up the sides. (There will most likely be more soup than fits in the container and this process will need to be repeated.) Place the tomato soup and the container in the chamber of the vacuum machine and close the lid. The vacuum pulled on the chamber will begin to pull the air bubbles out of the soup. The soup will begin to climb the sides of the container and when it comes to just below the edge of the rim, shut the machine off. The chamber will then fill with air again and the soup will shrink back down in the dish having dispelled many of its air bubbles. This process should be repeated until the soup loses 95% of its air bubbles and changes from pale red to an intense red in color. Once the first batch of soup is free of air bubbles, remove it from the container and reserve in a bain marie or other suitable storage container. Repeat the process with the rest of the soup. Reserve in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Alternatively prepare the soup the day before you wish to serve it and let it rest in a covered container in the refrigerator for 24 hours, stirring gently every so often, so the bubbles have a chance to dissipate.

Mozzarella Noodles

340 grams fresh mozzarella cheese

113 grams ricotta cheese

4 grams fine sea salt

3.85 grams Activa Y-G transglutaminase powder

Twelve 7.6-cm x 22-cm acetate sheets

Remove the mozzarella from any liquid and pat it dry. Cut the cheese into a large dice. Puree the mozzarella and ricotta with salt either two cycles in a PacoJet or in a food processor until the mixture is completely smooth and homogenized. Sprinkle the Activa over the cheese and fold it into the mixture with a rubber spatula. Puree the cheese for one more cycle in the PacoJet or for 2-3 minutes in the food processor. Using a small offset spatula, carefully spread the base in thin layers on the acetate sheets. Lay the mozzarella sheets out on sheet trays, carefully placing plastic wrap between the layers. Any wrinkles caused by the plastic wrap will remain in the finished ribbons. Once all of the mozzarella has been used, invert a sheet tray over the one containing the mozzarella sheets and refrigerate them for at least 18 hours to allow the transglutaminase to activate.

Once the cheese has set and you are ready to use the sheets, gently peel the cheese from the acetate. They should slide off easily. Trim the coarse outer edges on the sides of the sheets and then cut each sheet lengthwise into 0.5cm ribbons.

Baby Tomatoes

40 mixed colored baby tomatoes

2 grams sea salt

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water is heating prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Once the water is boiling, blanch the baby tomatoes, 5 or six at a time, for five seconds and transfer them immediately to the ice bath. Be careful not to overcook the tomatoes, as they will become mushy. When the tomatoes are ice cold, remove them from the ice bath. Use a paring knife to peel the tomatoes, starting from the stem end of each one. Place the peeled tomatoes in a container in a single layer and season with the salt. Gently mix the tomatoes to coat evenly with the salt. When the tomatoes are seasoned, cover and reserve in the refrigerator until needed.

This was inspired by a recipe in Melissa Clark's wonderful book In The Kitchen With A Good Appetite. In the book she describes an incredible spinach pie made with feta and ricotta cheese, wrapped in phyllo and doused with butter. I was determined to make it (from memory) and so of course the finished product bore little resemblance to the original when I went back and checked. Didn't matter, the pie, made in a bundt pan with a combination of feta and ricotta, was pretty delicious. Of course after a generous "tasting" I had little appetite for dinner. The pie disappeared in short order and I learned a new technique, wrapping the filling in dry phyllo, piercing it and dousing with melted butter before baking. It worked beautifully and now I am full of ideas for variations. Sweet cheesecake fillings, sweet fruit fillings with pistachios or rich meat fillings, redolent with spices and tempered with herbs. There's lots to be done here, especially with fall approaching. You'll just have to wait and see what comes next.

These torpedo onions continue to inspire thoughts of calamari. The onions look like big, fat, stuffed squid. Following this tangent we cooked the onions sous vide at 84°C for 1.5 hours. Once they were cooked and cooled we cut them lengthwise halfway through in order to unwrap them, while preserving individual leaves. Once we had separated the larger layers from the heart of the onion (the center of the onion resembles myoga--young ginger--as pointed out by Ben Rabbani via twitter, an idea we need to explore further) we were ready to proceed. The first idea was to create a stuffing for them. Another was to bread the whole tubes and fry them like calamari. (A third version is to bread the onion tubes, stuff them with crab meat and then fry them to indulge my desire for onion rings and crab cakes.) What we have done here is number two, the onion ring adaptation. The crumb mixture is made from everything rye bread crumbs. In this first cooking we served it with yuzu kosho-ketchup. On deck is the fried onion tube on top of a hot dog cooked in onion soup and topped with melted onions and Gruyere cheese.

One of our favorite meals is a plethora of oysters on the half shell accompanied by an abundance of hot, crispy French fries. An afternoon spent slowly sliding cold briny oysters down our throats interspersed with bites of crunchy, salty potatoes is one well spent. Oysters can easily be enjoyed either raw or cooked. Slicked with cream and spiked with chilies they can be a warm soothing spoonful on a rainy afternoon. Happily oysters are sustainably farmed shellfish and their industry has a minimal impact on the marine environment. That makes eating them a good thing for everyone involved, except perhaps the oyster.

Pearl oysters are not the same as food oysters, so there’s no possibility of finding a rare perfect jewel in your dinner. The oyster you consume may contain a tiny pearl but it comes from a different family entirely. Edible oysters are from the Ostrideae family and are scattered in waters throughout the world. Two of the most popular varieties are the eastern American oyster, Crassostrea virginica, and the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas. The first variety is found in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the second in the Pacific. There are variations of these two species found from New York to Australia and everywhere in between. The three other cultivated species are the Kumamoto known as Crassostrea sikamea, the European Flat or Belon named Ostrea edulis, and the Olympia, otherwise called the Ostrea conchaphila.

Oysters grow best in areas where fresh water and salt water mix in spots that are protected from waves and storms. They tend to be oval or pear-shaped although their structure can vary depending on what they attach themselves to. Oysters reproduce in one of two ways. The European and Olympia oysters are hermaphrodites. Eggs are fertilized within the body and then carried in the gills for twelve days until larvae or spats form. The oysters from the Crassostrea branches begin life as males and then become female. They may change back and forth a few more times over their lifespan but remain primarily female after that first change. Females release eggs directly into the water and males do the same with their sperm. When the two cross paths the eggs are fertilized. These fertilized eggs mature into larvae in the water. Once the larvae have formed they swim through the ocean currents for two to three weeks, developing the beginnings of their shell, until they settle and attach themselves to a home using their sticky foot. There they remain until they are harvested and eaten by man or some other predator.

While oysters are not able to move by themselves, they can be dislodged by the pull of the waves. Their hinged shells are rough and irregular looking. The bottom shell is the one attached to their mooring, it is more curved and cup-like than the top. The shell itself is formed in layers with calcium carbonate in the chalky middle and nacre, better known as mother of pearl, forming the smooth inner lining. The hinge is connected to the two halves of the shell with two ligaments. When the inner adductor muscle relaxes, the shell can be opened and closed using the ligaments.

One of the main issues with eating raw oysters is the texture. People either love them or hate them. There isn’t much space in between those two stances. They are undeniably slippery and soft, salty, sometimes creamy, sometime mineral-y, slightly sweet, and to our minds, delicious. Our years in fine dining kitchens have led us to cleaning raw oysters for use in composed dishes. We would shuck the oysters and save the juice. Then we would trim around the visceral mass, that plump center piece, removing all of the myriad small parts surrounding it and setting them aside. We would use the oyster liquor and that trimmed meat to make a sauce to highlight the smaller, single bite of oyster.

When we were working in Maine we were lucky enough to get oysters delivered to us from down the road. Jeff was our oyster guy, Pemaquids were his bounty. Because we were local, he introduced us to jumbo oysters. These beauties came in shells that were almost a foot long. The oysters inside were large but not as gargantuan as the shells might lead you to believe. These plump beauties were singularly delicious and succulent. We used them to make a version of Oysters Rockefeller that was served in the giant bottom shells and the presentation was as popular as the dish itself. You will only be able to source oysters this large at their place of origin because the cost of shipping the heavy shells makes them prohibitively expensive anywhere else.

We are always looking for ways to make food taste better. Sometimes that means making it more approachable. After all if diners won’t taste something it doesn’t matter how good it is. We came up with the idea of gently poaching the oysters to firm up the flesh while still retaining the fresh briny flavor of the raw product. We don’t cook them for long, we simply shuck and then cook them sous vide in their juices at 48°C/118°F for twenty minutes. Then we ice them down to stop the cooking process. Finally we trim the poached oysters, separating out the liquid and reserving the trim, although you are free to serve them whole if you prefer. Then we see where inspiration takes us. The low temperature cooking allows the oysters to plump up and sets the flesh to eliminate the slippery texture that many people find unpleasant. They still have all the flavor of the raw oyster with the added benefit of a silky, resilient texture. In fact we have convinced a few confirmed raw oyster haters to enjoy oysters on the half shell with these softly cooked beauties.

Once the oyster has been poached we strain the juices and store the oysters in it. We use these oysters in both cooked and raw preparations. We’ve found that the poached oysters retain their shape and do not shrivel up or lose their shape when we cook them again. They fry up beautifully and we can use the liquor as the basis for a tart, briny vinaigrette to dip them in.

Here's a simple oyster preparation that still manages to layer flavors for maximum effect.

Oyster Cocktail

50 Pemaquid (or your favorite) Oysters

100 grams/3.5 ounces smoked ketchup

100 grams/3.5 ounces kimchi

30 grams/1 ounce minced preserved lemons

Use an oyster knife to open the oysters. Reserve the bottom shells from the oysters. Place the oyster and its juices into a bowl set on ice. When all the oysters are open place them into a vacuum bag and seal on high pressure. Cook the oysters in a 48°C/118°F water bath for twenty minutes. When the oysters are cooked place the bag in an ice water bath to chill them completely. When the oysters are chilled, open the bag, strain the juices and reserve them. Use a pair of scissors to trim the mantle and the muscle off the oyster. Put the trimmed oysters in the strained oyster juices.

Combine the oyster trimmings with the ketchup and kimchi in a blender. Puree until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Fold the minced preserved lemons into the kimchi-oyster cocktail sauce.

To serve spoon an oyster and some of its juices into the reserved shells. Top each oyster with a spoonful of the kimchi cocktail sauce.

These pistachios are first charred and then hydrated in water, both to tenderize them and allow them to be pureed easily. A light caramelization created with a butane torch adds a toasty note to the nuts. In the finished puree it adds a richness and full bodied character that gives it the flavor to anchor a dish. Silky smooth, smoky and sweet, the pistachio puree brings to mind roasted shrimp, seared beef and earthy mushrooms, perhaps not all together but definitely all with the puree. Try it and see where the flavor takes you.

I love cake. It makes me happy. That said I prefer plain cakes to fancy ones, snack cakes to French pastries, and icings or glazes to thick frosting. What can I say, if I'm going to eat cake it should be the star. Now that we have Amaya I have ample opportunity to indulge my taste for simple, not too sweet cakes that are easily stired together and bake into moist bites of goodness that need little adornment. Yogurt cakes are a favorite of mine and this chocolate yogurt cake is pretty wonderful. I like it plain, perhaps with a dusting of confectioners sugar and a few fresh berries but if you want to gild the lily you can make some simple icing to pour over the top after the syrup has time to soak in. Amaya will tell you that sprinkles or pink sugar are never a bad thing on top of icing and at that point a little more sugar just makes everything that much more appealing. Though truthfully I eat this cake straight from the pan without any extras more often than not. It's the perfect pick me up for that mid-morning/mid-afternoon/midnight slump.

Chocolate Yogurt Cake

1 cup (150 g) all purpose flour

½ cup (65 g) dutch process cocoa

1 teaspoons (6 g) baking powder

½ teaspoon (2.5 g) baking soda

3/4 teaspoon (4.5 g) fine sea salt

1 cup (225 g) plain whole-milk yogurt

1 cup (200 g) sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon (2 g) vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon (2 g) chocolate extract

1/2 cup (113 g) vegetable oil (I use rice bran or canola)

½ cup (100 g) sugar

1 tablespoon (8 g) dutch process cocoa

½ cup water

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 9-inch spring form pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, the eggs, vanilla and chocolate extracts. Pour them into the dry ingredients and slowly whisk them together. With a rubber spatula, stir the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40-45 minute, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and leave at room temperature to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the chocolate syrup. Stir together the sugar and cocoa in a small saucepot. Add the water and set over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer, stirring constantly until all of the sugar has dissolved and it is smooth and shiny. Remove from heat. Use a toothpick to poke holes in the top of the cake while it is still warm and in the cake pan. Spoon the sauce over the top of the cake and let it soak in. Let the cake cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Prime Top Butt. We stumbled across this as we were shopping recently. It is a beautiful piece of meat, nicely marbled, approximately an inch thick and full of possibilities. This is a cut we used years ago when we were cooking at Keyah Grande and it was nice to find again at our local Whole Foods.

Doughnut holes, bacon, lettuce and tomato. We've been playing around with our no-knead brioche recipe and one of our favorite applications is frying it up into doughnuts. Amaya is a big fan of small doughnut holes and she happily steals them off the sheet tray without remorse and devours them. They are the size of large marbles or cherry tomatoes. Seeing the doughnut holes on the counter beside a few quarts of cherry tomatoes caused inspiration to strike. Why not use them for a riff on Italian bread salad? Not only were they the perfect size and shape but they could be filled with various flavorful condiments from green goddess dressing to a pesto lightened with with a touch of savory whipped cream. They happily soak up dressing and provide texture and crunch to contrast our vegetables. It's the DBLT, eaten with a fork and savored by diners of all ages.

Smaller pieces of meat are an often overlooked cuts in animals other than cattle. Here we have taken four venison flank steaks, easily a quarter or less of the size of beef flank steaks, and bonded them together with Activa RM. The result is a thick and juicy piece of meat, which can be seared and sliced. They cook up beautifully, yielding steaks that are both tender and flavorful. The next question is how best to show them off in both plated dishes and family style preparations.

Hanging out in a restaurant kitchen, I looked at an overcooked omelet and I saw potential. I took a discarded round, thin disc of egg and put it in the deep fryer. In short order it started to caramelize and crisp. The giant round actually resembled a taco shell. (Note to self, explore this idea.) The second time I worked with a thinner omelet, which I cut into triangles. I deep fried them and the result was these wonderful chips (iphone photo above). They are about 85% delicious. But the seed is there. We still have more work to do fine tuning them and then we'll decide how to integrate them into a dish. In the meantime think about about frying your eggs and see how far you can take them in your kitchen.

This dish has been a long time coming. Years ago when we lived in Colorado there was a local restaurant who's specialty of the house was smoked rib eye steaks. It was a great idea that suffered greatly in the execution. It was something we had forgotten about until recently. We stumbled across some beautiful rib eyes at Whole Foods the other day and when we got them home we just happened to have the smoker going for cold smoked fried chicken. Serendipity. A bit of salt and sugar to season the steaks, followed by an hour in the smoker produced these wonderfully decadent cold smoked rib eye steaks (pictured below). A quick turn on the grill turned them into dinner. (Be jealous.) Once again dinner was devoured before any pictures could be taken. We'll work on that, but truly, good food is meant to be eaten at its peak and that is something to to be taken seriously, especially with steaks as good as these.

Bubbles are exciting. Controlling bubbles is even more exciting because bubbles do not enjoy being controlled and manipulated. In our most recent foray into foam we blended iota carrageenan--0.1% (a self healing, gelling hydrocolloid) with xanthan gum--0.15%-- to stabilze some bubbles. The result was light, rich and worth taking further. For now we have a deliciously sweet milk foam. The future holds the possiblilites from Brie de Meaux to shrimp scampi.

We are certainly taking some liberties in calling this green mole. And yet, the inspirations for the combination and the overall consistency of the finished sauce are the delicious moles we have enjoyed in the past. This sauce is a combination of charred pistachios, hydrated in water overnight and pureed with charred jalapenos and blanched lovage. A bit of xanthan gum keeps the mixture together and the overall flavor and consistency of the mixture has us eating bite after bite straight from the container.

Our first application of powdered French Toast was with a sweet custard and blueberries. The blueberry sauce was made with baked blueberries thickened with a bit of tapioca starch. The berries themselves are fresh and lightly glazed with cold blueberry sauce. The custard is a blend of cream and milk enriched with egg yolk, sweetened with sugar and thickened with carrageenan. This could work as a full blown dessert, but in this smaller size it fills the role of a pre-dessert, a great introduction to the sweeter part of the meal.

The initial idea was to mimic the shape and texture of calamari with rings of torpedo onions. But after cooking the rings resembled pachierri, a noodle who's shape is modeled after the rings of calamari. So are we mirroring a mimic? It really doesn't matter, the idea is what inspired the results. The dish is comprised of torpedo onion rings braised in tomato water and olive oil, homogenized together to create a thick and rich cooking liquid. We seasoned the finished dish with basil leaves and shards of Parmigianno Reggiano and more of the tomato emulsion. It made for a vegetarian dish easily able to satisfy any hunger.

In order to make powdered french toast we took our no-knead brioche and cut it into cubes. We cooked them over medium heat in a saute pan with generous amounts of sweet butter. Once the brioche was brown and caramelized we added maple sugar, salt, ground cinnamon and a few gratings of nutmeg. Then we cooled the mixture down and pureed it with an equal amount (by volume) of tapioca maltodextrin. The result was a light, sweet powder with crunchy maple-caramel bits that tasted like the essence of french toast. With this as a starting point we have a wide range of sweet and savory applications to explore, although Amaya prefers to eat it by the spoonful.

We've been asked to take some photos and shoot some short video segments for an expanded ebook version on Ideas in Food, Great Recipes and Why They Work. There's no budget, the payoff comes in selling additional books so we're doing everything ourselves (nothing new). This is less of an issue with the photography because that's a big portion of what we do for a living but the video is more of a stretch. Which is a long way of saying if anyone out there has some great tips on shooting engaging video in general, or with an iphone, we'd love to hear them.

As we work through this process we are revisiting many of the recipes in the book. One of our favorites is the no-knead brioche. In an effort to keep the portions in line with our 3-person family, we divided our dough into four roughly equal portions and refrigerated them to be baked off at different times. The day after we made cinnamon rolls we remembered that there was some duck rillettes in the fridge. We loved the idea of buttery brioche and rich duck and so it was a small leap to filling our dough with the rillettes and topping the rolls with sweet/bitter orange marmalade. They were so good.

And then, because Alex believes you can never have too much of a good thing, we butter-steamed a few eggs and topped them with pepper jack cheese. Then we split open a couple of duck confit rolls, griddled them and made egg sandwiches. (Brief moment of silence.) Let's just say that we'll be making these again, very soon.

Here we have quickly blackened the outside and tips of a few key ingredients. The light charring releases aromatics, provides a rich toasty note and slightly bitter undertones. It's a great return for a very small effort.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Polyscience's newest piece of equipment, the Sonicprep homogenizer. It uses sound waves to homogenize disparate ingredients. In this application we blended 30% bacon fat and 70% watermelon juice, seasoned with 0.5% salt, 0.125% lactic acid and 0.15% xanthan gum. The finished liquid is heat stable and does not separate over time. In our first application, we used it to bake fluke fillets topped with slices of purple torpedo onions. What surprised us was how the watermelon-bacon fat emulsion held together through cooking and even glacaged like heavy cream. It's flavor was amazing and it made for a delicious dinner, which is the point of any cooking endeavour. Technology made it possible but the flavor made it worth repeating.

Often when we speak of garlic we talk of hard neck, spring or scapes. And yet we've discovered that summer garlic, with full bulbs that have just begun to develop their feathery paper skin is the ultimate in flavor and texture. The stuff in the farmer's market now is amazing and our local vendor admonished us to keep it in the refrigerator for best quality. The bulbs are are heavy, their aroma intoxicating, and the texure is crisp and delicious. We now have a greater appreciation for the ingredient and are intent on finding ways to highlight this delicious allium.

These two pasta shapes for the machineare both twisted, but their texture and applications are different. I am having trouble identifying their names so we will refer to them by their die numbers: #251 and #362. #251 is the tighter rounded corkscrew while #362 is the one that looks like a whelk/conch shell. We were first introduced to #251 by Anthony Goncalves at Restaurant 42. He served it with a ragout of braised snails and the dish was amazing. The second shape, #362, resembles a whelk shell and has us itching to get our hands on some whelks to go with them. In the meantime, Aki happily turned them into macaroni and cheese. The swirls are perfect for holding the creamy sauce. We look forward to hearing about their true names and what other people have done with them. For now we will use our imaginations and palates to chase great new pasta dishes in our kitchen.

When we were asked to do a sponsored post for BlogHer and Häagen-Dazs ® Made Like No Other the answer was a no-brainer, create a unique recipe using our favorite store bought ice cream? Absolutely. What could be more fun? We always enjoy a chance to indulge our inner child and then feed the results to Amaya. We favor their Five series, ice creams made with five ingredients. Amaya’s a big fan of the Strawberry ice cream so that was our starting point.

We began with the idea of granola, probably because we both like a crunchy contrast with out ice cream. But neither of us is a huge granola fan. The idea of breakfast stuck and our minds turned to bowls of sweet cereal with milk. This evolved into maple-glazed cornflakes blended with freeze dried strawberries. This mixture had everything we were looking for. It was light and crispy with tang from the strawberries and nice blend of sweetly savory flavors. We know it was good because as it lay on the dining room table cooling we heard a crunch, crunch, crunch, and looked over to see Amaya happily eating it straight from the pan.

We began to build our upside down sundae. We happened to have some fresh dulce du leche, otherwise known as milk jam, in the fridge and for the adult version of our cereal we blended a little Knob Creek bourbon into the caramel and put it in the bottom of the bowl. We added our cornflake crispies and then some fresh strawberries and tiny opal basil leaves. Now all we needed was the ice cream.

We shaved our Häagen-Dazs Strawberry ice cream over the top. Admittedly we used a little liquid nitrogen to help things stay frozen for the photo. But the ice cream was firm enough to shave straight from the freezer, all you need is a mandolin and a chilled bowl to shave it into. The shaved ice cream gave easily under our spoons, blending with the cereal below it and melting into the dulce du leche for one of the best ice cream treats we’ve ever had.

Strawberries and Cream withHäagen-Dazs ® Made Like No Other

Drunken Milk Jam

¼ cup/ 75 grams dulce de leche or cajeta

1 tablespoon/ 13 grams bourbon

Put the dulce de leche and bourbon into a bowl. Whisk the ingredients together to fully blend. Reserve.

Sandy Strawberry Cornflakes

¼ cup/ 75 grams grade B maple syrup

¼ cup/ 50 grams granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon/ 1.5 grams fine sea salt

3.5 ounces/ 100 grams cornflakes

1.2 ounces/ 34 grams freeze dried strawberries

Combine the maple syrup, sugar and salt into a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until large bubbles form. Add the cornflakes to the hot syrup and stir to coat evenly. Turn the heat down to medium and continue to cook the sugar-coated cornflakes until the sugar syrup dries and they become sandy and slightly caramelized, 10-15 minutes. When the cornflakes are cooked, coated and dry add the freeze-dried strawberries. Stir to combine and then transfer the hot cereal mixture to a parchment lined sheet pan to cool. When the cereal is completely cool put it into a zip top bag and reserve.

Shaved Strawberry Ice Cream

1 pint Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream

1 liter liquid nitrogen (optional)

Take the lid off the ice cream and use a serrated knife to cut the pint of ice cream in half. Remove the pint container packaging and wrap each half of ice cream in plastic wrap and put into a very cold freezer. Put 2 metal bowls in the freezer and let chill at least one hour. Remove half of the ice cream and one metal bowl from the freezer. Working quickly unwrap the ice cream and shave it on a Japanese mandoline into the bowl. If the ice cream begins to melt put it and the bowl back into the freezer to firm up. Repeat with the other half of ice cream. Alternatively, fill a Styrofoam cooler with one liter of liquid nitrogen and shave the ice cream into the liquid nitrogen. Use a wire skimmer to transfer the ice cream to the frozen metal bowl in the freezer. Repeat with the other half of ice cream.

To Serve

36 baby opal basil leaves

6 fresh strawberries cleaned and cut into eighths

Drunken Milk Jam

Sandy Strawberry Cornflakes

Shaved Häagen-Dazs Strawberry ice cream

Put a large spoonful of the drunken milk jam in the bottom of the bowl. Spoon the sandy cereal around the milk jam. Top the cereal with sliced strawberries and opal basil leaves. Spoon the shaved ice cream on top. Serve immediately.

We've fallen in love with these eggplants. They are beautiful and delicious. First we stuffed one with sausage. The eggplant held it's structure and flavor after cooking and was the perffect foil for the flavors of our olive sausage. So we decided to take the vegetable one step further. Here we scored the eggplant and seared it in bacon fat. It caramelized on both sides and became soft and creamy on the inside, much like the texture of seared foie gras.

Eggplant has a subtle, earthy flavor and yet it was able to stand up to its accompaniments: corn puree, maple butter, tender lovage seeds and maple bourbon bubbles. It's a dish that could work with foie gras but is somehow more satisfying with this complex vegetable serving as its anchor. Sweet, earthy, and utterly satisfying.

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